Both the civil and the common law legal systems have, as a result of their historical development, elaborated different conceptions of the law of agency. Given the existing divergence in approaches and rules relating to agency, the international unification of law in this field, although highly demanded by commercial practice, seems a problematic, but not impossible, task. The decades long efforts of a large number of states, international organisations and individuals to provide uniform rules of international agency law have resulted in the adoption of two conventions, namely, the Hague Convention on the Law Applicable to Agency (1978) aimed at the unification of the conflict rules of agency, and the UNIDROIT Convention on Agency in the International Sale of Goods (1983) which attempts to provide uniform material rules. / This thesis provides a detailed analysis of the uniform rules set out in both agency Conventions. The main purpose of this analysis is to assess the extent to which uniformity is achieved by these Conventions. However, in order to reveal the divergence of approaches between the civil and common law legal systems and define the "conflict areas" of international agency, the present study also contains a comparative survey of material and conflict rules of agency existing in the two systems.

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We are witness today, within a context of an increasingly integrated European Union, to the making of a new common legal order which is that of the European Community. This new ius commune Europaeum will have to be based on legal foundations that can be adhered to by all member states. In this perspective, it is indispensable to investigate whether domestic legal systems of the member states are able to adopt legal concepts of other member states without undermining their cohesive natures. Only then will it be possible to build the emerging ius commune on a conceptual legal framework, which is not to be perceived as a Fremdkorper in the participating states. The present thesis analyzes how Quebec's civilian jurisdiction adopted the common law concepts of the trust and unconscionability, in order to answer the question whether, and if so how, European civil law jurisdictions may adopt common legal concepts and yet remain cohesive.